


P.A.L.S

by Timeline15



Series: Ghosts and Angels [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Bow and the horde duo are a lab team now, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24351736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timeline15/pseuds/Timeline15
Summary: Since my first ever She-Ra fic over on ff.net was a sad one set just after Angella's sacrifice, I wanted to make one that established that they were at least *trying* to get her back. It was the one glaring omission of season 5 for me. It's just a one-shot, but I may follow up this story thread in future works. Hope you like it!
Relationships: Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: Ghosts and Angels [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848541
Comments: 17
Kudos: 115





	P.A.L.S

Glimmer walked briskly through the glittering hallways of Brightmoon, willing herself to look straight ahead, rather than at the item in her hand. Losing the mental battle rather quickly, her eyes flitted downwards once again. In her hand she held an arrow with a small scroll hanging from the shaft, bearing a cute illustration of a smiling face, and the phrase "come to the lab".

Honestly, the arrow had been entirely unnecessary. In the weeks since the defeat of Horde Prime, she and Bow hadn't gone to any effort to be private about the… changed nature of their relationship. No-one in the castle would have batted an eyelid at the sight of Bow going into her room, so he could easily have just told her the message himself, but instead, they had kept up the old tradition. It reminded them of a simpler time; back when Glimmer would be grounded, or subject to curfew, and Bow would sneak little messages to her to cheer her up, often followed closely by her teleporting outside to bring him in, so that they could keep each other company in person. Looking back on it now, she wondered how she hadn't realised how she felt about him sooner. It all seemed so obvious now.

Noticing a couple of guards emerging into the corridor ahead, Glimmer tried her best to wipe the love-struck smile from her face, and nodded politely to them with all the composure that befitted the Queen of Brightmoon, (whatever that title meant now that she and her father were ruling side by side at least). The instant the guards were gone, her patience failed her. Losing the will to walk the rest of the way, she simply teleported, feeling excitement welling in her chest as the mauve sparkles engulfed her.

She materialised right outside the laboratory door. Even from outside, she could hear the whirring and clanking of machinery. Pretty much right after everyone had returned to their kingdoms, Bow had requested that a lab be built in Brightmoon palace, stating only that he had some projects he wanted to work on. He had insisted on keeping up the air of mystery ever since, much to Glimmer's feigned chagrin. Now though, it seemed as though Bow had decided the time for secrets was over.

Giving a polite knock on the door, Glimmer waited for a response. After a couple of minutes, she had received none. Wondering if Bow was unable to hear her over the machinery, she moved to knock again, but the door swung open before she got the chance, and she was grabbed tightly by two masses of purple hair.

"Ah, Glimmer!" exclaimed Entrapta, oblivious to personal space as ever "You're just in time! Come on in!" She pulled Glimmer into the lab before the latter could get a word in, quickly slamming the door behind her.

The sight that met Glimmer's eyes was…about what she'd expected. Broken pieces of machinery scattered over every available surface, cables trailing across the floor and hanging from the ceiling, canisters of unidentifiable fluid bubbling calmly in the corner. It looked for the entire world like a cleaner, better lit version of Hordak's old sanctum, complete with said Prime clone busying himself with an experiment at the far end of the room.

Instinctively, she scanned the room for Bow, finding him only when he crawled out from under a pile of components stacked in one corner of the lab.

"Oh, Glimmer! You got my note. Great, we have something to show you" he said with a smile that made Glimmer's heart melt despite how dishevelled and splattered in engine oil he appeared to be.

"Oh, "we"?" replied Glimmer, flicking her gaze quickly to Entrapta, and then to Hordak. "You three have been working together?"

"Yep!" Entrapta shouted slightly too close to Glimmer's ear. "The three of us have been making great strides since we started collaborating; isn't that right Hordak?"

"His assistance has been… satisfactory" scowled Hordak, barely looking up from his own work. Glimmer got the impression that, coming from Hordak, that was probably a glowing compliment.

Bow evidently knew this to be true, as he smiled briefly in Hordak's direction in response. "Hordak's knowledge of Horde tech has been a huge help ever since we got the lab up and running. We've been building things I could only have dreamt of before. That's… actually why I asked you to come today."

"Ooh, trying to dazzle me with science, tech master?" Glimmer asked with a smirk, knowing that Entrapta and Hordak cared too little about gossip to tease her for flirting.

"Something like that" Bow replied, returning her grin. "Entrapa: the screen if you please."

Entrapta excitedly produced a large remote from Etheria knows where and pushed the single comically large button on its surface. Immediately, every light in the lab shut off, plunging to room into darkness, pierced only by the blinking lights of the various machines scattered about the place.

Moments later, a large screen descended from the ceiling, illuminating the room in dull blue light as it flickered into life. Then, after another few seconds, an animated graphic began playing on the screen, four large letters spinning into view, spelling out P.A.L.S, with what looked like some sort of vortex or galaxy in the background.

"P.A.L.S?" Glimmer asked, somewhat confused.

"Get it?!" Entrapta squealed happily "It spells 'pals'! Bow came up with it; it's so good having a lab partner who can cover for my deficiency at wordplay."

"I can see that it spells 'pals'" Glimmer replied incredulously. "What I don't quite get is was 'pals' actually means."

"You… need me to explain what friends are?" Entrapta replied with a nonplussed expression.

Glimmer repressed the urge to snap at her, reminding herself of Entrapta's lack of grasp of the social graces. "What it means _in the context of your project_ , Entrapta."

"Oh, well that's simple, you see-" Entrapta paused for a moment, glancing over to Bow. "Actually, I think the project leader deserves to make that announcement."

Before Glimmer could voice her surprise that Entrapta and Hordak would allow someone else to be "project leader" on anything they worked on, Bow stepped forward with a look of excitement on his face. Entrapta handed him the remote, and he gestured dramatically to the screen as he pressed the button a second time.

"Behold!" he announced with a dramatic flair that would make Sea hawk jealous "Our new project!"

The P.A.L.S graphic rearranged itself until the letters sat in a column, each one spelling out a word to its right. Glimmer let out an audible gasp as the project's full name was revealed.

_Princess Angella Liberation Society_

"B-bow…" she stammered, not daring to hope that what she was thinking was even possible "Is this?-"

"Yes it is" Bow replied with a warm smile. "P.A.L.S is a project for the four of us, built around one mission: finding a way to bring your mom back."

"It's still in the early stages" Hordak interjected, finally looking up from his work "but we're confident in our chances. With my broth-… with Prime's destruction of the First Ones, we have no functional copy of their portal devices to examine, but the galactic Horde's technology is formidable in its own right. It is our belief that, using components salvaged from Prime's fleet, we will have far better luck creating a stable portal device than we did using the dilapidated equipment we had access to in the Fright Zone."

"Prime's fleet already had functional Portal devices of course" Entrapta continued, hijacking Hordak's monologue in a way only _she_ could do without incurring his anger "but those could only teleport to known coordinates. _Our_ job will be to find a means of determining your mother's location in space-time, and building a device with the processing power to create a portal to that location. The science involved is _fascinating_ ; I have some charts I can show you if you-"

Entrapta cut herself off at the sight of tears rolling down Glimmer's face. Despite the smile she still wore, the queen of Brightmoon was shuddering as sobs shook her body.

"Glimmer? Are you ok?" Bow asked worriedly, rushing over to pull Glimmer into a hug. "I'm sorry; was it too soon to talk about her? I waited this long because I wanted to be sure we had a good chance before getting your hopes up, but if it still hurts to think about, we can do this another time. I didn't mean to-"

"No, Bow" Glimmer mumbled lovingly into his neck "It's not about that. I want you to try, and I wanna be part of it when you do. It's just… this is all so lovely. We've got a whole new world to explore; there's so much you could be doing now the war's over, and here you are, still trying to help her… and me."

"Wha-… _of course_ I am!" Bow exclaimed, shocked at the suggestion that he should be doing anything else. "You deserve a happy ending as much as the rest of us; I wasn't gonna just ignore something I knew I could do for you. Besides… Angella helped make our victory possible. She deserves to see the world it brought us."

Her sobs subsiding somewhat, Glimmer lifted her head from its resting place to look Bow in the face. "I love you so much" she beamed softly.

"I love you too" Bow whispered, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead like he had done for the first time just a few weeks before. It had become a regular gesture since then, and Glimmer strongly suspected she would never tire of it.

Had they been alone, Glimmer would have teleported them both back to her bed there and then, but she was acutely aware of Entrapta standing just metres away, practically buzzing with anticipation at the prospect of showing off her charts.

"Thanks you guys" Glimmer said, forcing herself to pull away from Bow and stand under her own power "This means more than you can imagine. Now, run me through those charts Entrapta. I wanna know everything you've figured out."

The next few hours passed quickly, with Bow and Entrapta (with the occasional interjection from Hordak) running her through every workable theory, concept, and blueprint they currently had for the project. It was all still very much in the realm of the theoretical, but for the first time in what felt like an eternity, Glimmer came out of the discussion truly believing that saving her mother was possible.

Before she knew it, it was evening (or at least, was probably evening; she couldn't really tell in the windowless lab, but the fact that her and Bow's eyelids were starting to feel heavy likely meant it was getting late).

"This is all great guys, but I think I'm gonna turn in for the night" she said, getting up to stretch her numb legs. "Entrapta, Hordak; I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow." Hordak replied with an absent-minded grunt, already absorbed in another test, while Entrapta gave her a cheerful wave with one small frond of hair.

"Bow, are you coming?" Glimmer asked, yearning for him to say yes more than she had any night in her life.

"I dunno Glimmer, If Hordak's got another test in the works, I should probably be here to oversee it" replied Bow, evidently taking his role as project leader very seriously. Glimmer though, wasn't having it; not tonight.

"Come one" she said, leaning into him and putting on her best flirtatious smile. "What was it you said earlier about me 'deserving a happy ending'?"

"I was talking about the war" replied Bow, his resistance entirely undermined by the smirk now gracing his face.

"All right then. I guess the queen will just have to retire to her cold, empty bed all by her lonesome for the night" Glimmer lamented with mock despair, looking up at Bow to watch as his eyes narrowed and his grin widened.

"Well, we can't have that can we?" he replied, pulling her in closer.

Hordak and Entrapta, their heads buried in their latest project, didn't even notice the noise or the sparkles as the two disappeared together.

**Author's Note:**

> Since my first ever She-Ra fic over on ff.net was a sad one set just after Angella's sacrifice, I wanted to make one that established that they were at least *trying* to get her back. It was the one glaring omission of season 5 for me. It's just a one-shot, but I may follow up this story thread in future works. Hope you like it!


End file.
